beerbelly42

Hey man, thanks again for the beers. Thought I'd just make a thread to post a little feedback -- when I get around to trying them. Anyone else can join in if they'd like, of course...

So I'm downing this IPA pretty fast -- hope it's not super high ABV

Really nice hop and malt aroma. The bitterness is there, but not over-the-top; just about right. A lot of hop flavor, but also balanced with some good grainy and caramel malt. Maybe getting a little Diacetyl -- or maybe it's just from the malt? I'm not an expert on that, so I wanted to ask what you think. That's kind of nit-picky though; I'll file this one under "I'd buy it".

Am I tasting some Centennial? Just curious...

Good Idea, Ed. I'll post some thoughts when I try them. Thanks for the beers, all!

Ed,

Thanks for the feedback. Im glad you enjoyed the IPA.

Its not too bad on ABV just 7.5%

That is Centennial your picking up that is the main Dry Hop. Most of the bittering, flavor, and aroma were Simcoe and Columbus.

I am really looking forward to the Saison but im saving that for the weekend.

Thanks again for filling the whole in my Uinta barley wine collection. Hopefully the next beer tatsing get together, probably the holiday tasting I can break out some of the old vintages and we can all do a small vertical.

Sounds good...

Let me know what you think of the Saison. Don't be gentle

I apologize for not remembering who's this was, but the EPA (written in red on the cap) was awesome. The freshest burst of hops hits your nose when you pour that thing out. Nicely balanced but definitely hop forward. Very well done I could drink that by the gallon.

Cool, glad you liked it.

That one was an experiment: Used a light amount of bittering hops, and no more hops in the boil. Then added a bunch when the wort had chilled to about 160° -- plus some dry-hops. I think that brought out a pretty nice character...

Ed,

I have to agree with Kent, the EPA was a great beer. Huge hop aroma and flavor really clean and crisp. I did pick up some mintiness. Curious if that was hop derived northern brewer maybe?

Anyway with how hot it was yesterday coming inside and grabbing that out of the fridge was awesome.

Ricky,

I also ended up with one of your Oatmeal Stouts. The thing just looked perfect dark black with a large tan head that just stayed. It also laced the glass nicley. The mouthfeel was excatly how it should be and left that nice silkiness on the palate in the finish. Well Done.

Awesome. That's interesting about the mint. Hadn't noticed any... I'll have to look for it next time. Used Magnum for bittering; the post-boil and dry-hops were Amarillo and Centennial, 50/50.

Speaking of the heat: Think I'm going to wait a week or two to check out Ricky's stout. Maybe a little longer for the Imperial.

beerbelly42,

Thanks for the comments. I ran out of stuff to trade and kinda walked away when you were showing up, sorry. I'll try not to be rude next time and stay and chat. As for the trades, I've been a looser and have been working a bit too hard (beer fest tonight included) to try the trades yet, but when I do I'll let y'all know.

Ed, I'm with you on the hot weather and stouts... not the best idea. Quinn and I are planning on re-doing a few of our beers in the next week or so, but the idea of standing over a boil in this heat makes me want to kill myself. Thank goodness I work in a nice air conditioned business, I see the fellows who are working on the side of the road and know they aren't getting paid enough.

---Ricky

I hear you. I pussed out on making a batch last week, knowing we have some cooler weather coming up...

So this is idiotic... but I opened the Barleywine, for some reason thinking it was a Berliner Weisse, with the bottle labeled "AB" being the Barleywine. Now that I'm thinking about it, pretty sure you said that's a brown... Anyway:

Not an expert on this style by any means, but this is really tasty. There's a prominent sweetness at first, but it's well balanced with the bitterness. Nice malt complexity: a lot of caramel, some grain, and maybe a little maple-ish flavor, even? No alcohol in the flavor, but I get some of that “warming” effect, which is awesome in a high-gravity style (and would be even better if it wasn’t 80° In my house, ha)

Ed,

Sorry I should have come up with a better legend for my bottle caps. Im glad you enjoyed the Barleywine even if it was 80 degrees.

I tried your Dry Hopped Saison this weekend, I wish I would have taken better notes. Wow!!! that was really an awesome beer so much that it inspired me to make my first real Saison. (I did a petite lavendar Saison for the wife before but that doesnt count). I did a Citra Saison. I cant help but want to dry hop it as well. Thanks again for the beers.

That is crazy I just did the Citra Saison out of the Zymurgy magazine. I would love to trade a bottle when its all finished.

That sounds awesome. I was going to use Citra in that Saison (with Centennial), but it wasn't available in the spring. Glad you liked it... I think it could use a little more malt character -- but only enough to keep it in the background or whatever.

So the Brown Ale was tasty. The hop and malt flavors go really well together. Might have to try something like that, since my attempts at a "hoppy Porter" have left something to be desired. Was that one the "Janet's Brown" recipe? I thought that's what Crossley said when he read your e-mail

JRL wrote:

That is crazy I just did the Citra Saison out of the Zymurgy magazine. I would love to trade a bottle when its all finished.

Sounds good I will let you know when its done.

Ed wrote:

So the Brown Ale was tasty. The hop and malt flavors go really well together. Might have to try something like that, since my attempts at a "hoppy Porter" have left something to be desired. Was that one the "Janet's Brown" recipe? I thought that's what Crossley said when he read your e-mail

Yes it was based on Tasty's Janets Brown Recipe with a couple hop substitutions.

Cool. Nice work.

So I didn’t want to sit on anything named 'IPA' for too long, so I cracked this open and... Holy crap, man. Lots of fruity and doughy aroma, and a lot of fruity and spicy flavor (from the hops -- but I’d assume the yeast, too) combined with some cereal-ish and sort of sweet malt flavors. This is one of those beers that is balanced in some ways, unbalanced in other (good) ways. Really good stuff.

So what yeast strain did you use on this one?

I am assuming you are talking about the Belgian IPA cap code BIPA. I myself really enjoy this beer. I took my American IPA recipe and fermented it with a belgian Yeast WLP500 Trappist Ale. Its awesome to see how much a yeast strain can effect a beer. I am glad you enjoyed it. I am getting ready to brew this up again shortly.

Yeah, the Belgian IPA. You'd think I was drinking or something

I made an Extra Pale with a Belgian strain a while back. And you're right -- it's crazy how much different the malt flavor was, using grains I was pretty familiar with.

Nice job on the DIPA. Really tasty and interesting hop flavor/aroma. Spicy and fruity... What hops did you use for late/dry hopping?

It's really well balanced, too; malt backbone is substantial, but not too sweet or heavy. The firm bitterness works really well, too...

Citra throughout the boil. late hops were citra and amarillo 2oz of citra and 1 oz of amarillo at flameout. Then i double dryhopped 2 oz of citra and 1 oz of amarillo for the first charge for 5 days and then moved to secondary and hit it with another 2 oz of citra. All for a 5 gal batch. I thought it was quit drinkable for a 9% beer.

Yeah, definitely.

Drinking the tasty Belgian IPA... Really nice, complex flavors -- but I keep identifying apricot in there. Do you get that at all? And what yeast did you go with?

I've been big in to Belgian yeasts combined with "West Coast" flavor and aroma hops lately. I realize we all have different palates, but it still weirds me out to hear people say things like "they don't play nicely together".

Ill revisit it and see if i pick up apricot. I get a lot of Juicy fruit bubblegum in the aroma. I went with White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale for the yeast.

You know the very first Belgian IPA I ever had, I have to admit I wasn't a huge fan. Then I was in Chicago and a Brewery called Haymarket let me sample one and I absolutley loved it. I immediately made one that weekend and have been tweeking it since. I think I have it pretty dialed in for what I am looking for in a Belgo-American IPA.